lundi 13 août 2012

Lancôme La Vie est Belle: Life is beautiful, a message brought to you by L'Oréal

Does any decision-maker in the big perfume brands know how to choose? How do you choose,
how can you even smell when just about
every perfumer in Paris thrusts submissions under your nose for a couple of
years? If a product takes 5521 mods to be done, are we thinking “painstaking
perfectionism” or “jitters”? Are 5521 mods really something to brag about?
Apparently they are, since the Lancôme press material for La Vie est Belle
does.

You start suspecting something is amiss when a brand backs its new
perfume up with a press kit containing a potted history of women since the 70s,
several claims that this fragrance is about “less is better”, “being over
appearance”, “the simplicity of truth, of sincerity”, and philosophical
statements written by a thinking woman’s piece of beefcake named Vincent
Cespedès, author of a best-selling “man explained to women” treatise. Happiness,
Cespedès decrees in a
message brought to you by L’Oréal, is a “radical philosophical choice” for today’s women. And apparently, La Vie est Belle is the
magic pink-tinted potion that’ll enable them to make it. After 5521 attempts,
no doubt.

The new Lancôme, set to be one of the biggest launches of the season, is
signed by no less than three brilliant IFF perfumers, Olivier Polge, Dominique
Ropion and Anne Flipo. The first, Cosmétique
Mag informs us, perfected the iris note. The second worked on the jasmine
sambac and orange blossom heart. The third added the praline, vanilla, tonka,
blackcurrant and pear gourmand base. No one takes credit for the patchouli, which
must have snuck in of its own accord.

La Vie est Belle has a whopper of a sillage and sticks on skin like
caramel on a molar, possibly a tribute to Dominique Ropion’s peerless skills:
he couldn’t do fleeting if he tried.It is introduced as
“the first iris gourmand”, conveniently forgetting that Thierry Wasser’s Iris
Ganache for Guerlain got there first. The spare-no-expenses iris accord contains
actual orris concrete (possibly a thimble of it was waved over the production
chain?). But where Olivier Polge’s Dior Homme (the original, not the LVMH
rewrite) elegantly exploited the chocolate facets naturally present at certain
stages of the maturation of orris butter, this iris dives straight into the
praline vat, dragging the floral accord along with it.

The result, an offspring of Angel and Dior Homme, feels oddly sullen –
no wonder as a result of being tugged between its over-the-top maman, its too-cool-for-school papa, and
trying to pull off la zia Infusion
d’Iris’s classy act while longing all the time to join cousin Coco Mademoiselle in some girly hijinks.
I’d sulk too, even if I could borrow Julia Roberts’ dazzling smile to go out
into the world. C’est la vie.

hmmmm, I think the combined effort of three perfumers and a colossus of a company really managed to get on your nerves :) The thimble of orris butter waved over the production line was my favorite part! Hahaha

Sadly, reading this review reminded me of my long lost favorite Dior Homme. I miss the original so much, it's irreplaceable to me. It was my initiation in Orris-land, a land I have never abandoned ever since. The funny thing with orris is that the natural (several CO2s I've tried) has so very little tenacity that for me qualifies as a top note. I wander if orris based perfumes were ever possible before synthetics. Also, the so called powdery aspect of orris is not really noticeable in the natural which is more peppery-rooty. Dzongkha is a very accurate interpretation in my opinion but I can hardly find similarities between that and the one featured in Homme. The point of my rambling is that I can't decide if there is such a "concrete" theme that can be attributed to certain materials or is it rather an effect that is created by the structure of the composition as a whole.

Yes, Canada has those long, loooong roads, too, doesn't it? I get to Saks about twice a year, then have to catch up on all the new 'fumes and drive the SAs crazy! And if it's not at Saks, I'll probably never smell it. By the time samples arrive in the mail on my sand dune, they have been well-cooked in the tropical sun and are mostly "inaccurate versions"-ha!

Marla, to me the most painful thing about those roads is their ugliness -- not driving through nature but through industrial zones, big-box stores and strip malls. I quite agree with you that most mainstream launches aren't worth frequent treks. Sadly, given the talents involved, La Vie est Belle can be given a pass.

Denyse, is at least the bottle beautiful personally? Hope it doesn't seem cheap.I already don't expect a lot when i see too many perfumers on a single launch. The results so far are not spetacular. If even Chanel is not trying to raise the level for the game, it'd be quite a surprise if Lancome really did it with its new launch.Regarding your first question, i wonder myself if the average women still care for the fragrance itself or does have conscious of what is really find a new fragrance for herself.

Henrique, it's been customary for some years to put two or three perfumers to work on a product for big clients. Gives the clients the impression they're getting their money's worth, and I suppose perfumers might find it pleasant to do teamwork on things that can't possibly be very personal.As for your last comment: I can imagine any fragrance can elicit deep attachment if it's linked to a particular period or person, but I believe that when a scent doesn't have a very strong character, it might not generate strong attachment. People will like it, perhaps become accustomed to it, but I doubt you'll see the same time of life-long commitment to current launches as there were/are to Shalimar, Angel or Aromatics Elixir, for instance.

That's exactly where i wanted to go Denyse, it has been a long time since a really unique fragrance has been launched on the market, able to produce such a deep attachment. The impression that i have is that this is acceptable for what has been already sticked on the market, the classics, but for the launches it's more important to target your audience through the marketing and branding than through the emotional connection itself. If the fragrance last 5 years on the market is already a score. Is that kind of thing that i question myself sometimes, because you see that so so fragrances, like Bleue, sells so well, so it seems (and i really hope that i'm wrong) that connecting deeply to a fragrance is only a perfumista (or fragrance addicted, or fragrance lover maybe) matter.Interesting your take on the team work, but my impression is that the final result is not better when a single perfumer is able to create it with freedom.

Henrique, I'm actually convinced that when you put people in presence of beautiful fragrances with character, they'll be able to form such an attachment, whether or not they're aficionados. Perhaps even stronger because they're looking for "the One" rather than contemplating many different things. It's trying to be everything to everyone that yields un-emotional fragrances.

It's such a paradox. On the one hand, we live in a time of amazing creativity in perfume. On the other hand, how many people know about or can find these scents? I remember from the 70s to the 90s, the most wonderful perfumes could be found in fairly ordinary department stores (well worth driving two hours for!) - now you're likely to find perfumes that aren't worth smelling on the scent strip delivered to your door in a magazine. Of course, it's easy to order niche scents, but how many people know about them? ~~nozknoz

Nozknoz, the paradox is that every perfume starts out with the brand wanting something "NEW!" and "UNIQUE!" and ends up a fruity patchouli, a laundry musk rose or a shampoo floral. It must be infuriating for the many creative people involved in the process.

After the launch of Calvin Klein's Beauty I began to think that someone has noticed me. They are trying to tug money out of my wallet by convincing me that I am mature, beautiful and have somehow got some of life's problems sorted out. I have gained a bit of wisdom, and here is a perfume to help me celebrate that. La Vie est Belle seems to be having another try, competing for the dollars of women of a certain age with a bit of money to spare.

I can't remember how Beauty smelled on me. A scrubber, I seem to recall. I will give Lancome's effort a smell, just out of curiosity. It is probably too sweet for me.

As for a perfume for women with a bit of maturity and life experience, I'll stick to Rochas Femme. I trust the judgement of its two-person focus group: Edmond Roudnitska and Marcel Rochas. And my own judgement too, of course!

Please tell me that you are in Canada to distribute samples of Seville-and that you are in Cape Breton, watching the whales playing at the Canso Causeway???

A girl can dream :)

I loathe Julia Roberts-she's made some truly stinkin' films, including Pretty Woman. God I hate that movie. The premise is vile, and those hideous pleather boots that started the whole happy hooker look-they have a lot to answer for.Carole

Annemariec, as I was saying over on the French side of the comments, at the Roissy dutyfree the young SA said "this is a good scent "pour les mamans", so I guess it's really pitched the way you say... I'd say the Pradas (apart from Candy), and for instance Bottega Veneta are excellent mainstream offerings for those of us who aren't teenagers and don't want to smell like them.

Carole, I wish I were by the sea watching the whales -- but I am in Ottawa, watching a dozen honking Canada geese take over the ornamental pond behind my parents' building. I have no particular opinion of Julia Roberts, but agree about Pretty Woman: I loathed the film's not-so-hidden subtext. In many ways not so different from the current blockbuster variation on Cinderella, 50 Shades: poor girl transforms (and nabs) rich man through her love and many virtues.

Well, maybe you could offer a consolation prize of sorts, and explain in detail how you achieve the fabulous and subtle smoky eye look. Was it SL product you used? It's so subtle, and effective. YOu could write a style book. I'd buy it, for sure :)

Carole, thanks for the vote of confidence on the style book! Yes, in fact I do use Lutens makeup to do my eyes, because after experimenting with other brands I found they were technically superior. If you look back into my posts (early 2011?) I think I do explain a bit about my technique...

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Denyse Beaulieu

I am a writer and translator based in Paris, as well as the perfume editor for Citizen K. My book The Perfume Lover, A Personal History of Scent is published by Harper Collins (UK), St. Martin's Press (USA) and Penguin (Canada). The perfume linked to the book,Séville à l'aube, was composed by Bertrand Duchaufour for L'Artisan Parfumeur.